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Sherri Goodman

Senior Advisor for International Affairs, Center for Climate and Security

Professional background

Sherri Goodman is a Senior Advisor for International Security with The Center for Climate and Security, and a member of its Advisory Board. She is an executive, lawyer, former defense official and Senate Armed Services Committee staff professional based in Washington DC. She is also currently a Senior Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and at CNA. Most recently she served as the President and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, which manages federally funded science and technology programs and whose members are the nation’s leading ocean science research institutions.

Goodman previously served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of CNA, a research organization for national security leaders and public sector organizations. She is the founder and Executive Director of the CNA Military Advisory Board, whose landmark reports include National Security and the Threat of Climate Change (2007), Powering America’s Economy: Energy Innovation at the Crossroads of National Security Challenges (2010), and National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change (2014), Advanced Energy and US National Security (2017) among others.

Goodman served as the first Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security), responsible for global environmental, energy efficiency, safety and occupational health programs and policies of the Department of Defense. She served on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where she was responsible for oversight of the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex, including the national laboratories and the defense environmental management program.

Goodman is a member of the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board, for which she co-chaired a report on Arctic Security. She serves on the boards of the Atlantic Council, and the Adrienne Arsht Resilience Center; the Center for Climate and Security, the yiJoint Ocean Leadership Initiative, the Marshall Legacy Institute, the University Cooperation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and the US Water Partnership. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a member of the CFR Arctic Task Force. She has served as a Trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and on the Committee on Conscience of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Her media and speaking appearances include CNN, National Public Radio, BBC, and Al Jazeera. She has appeared in numerous documentaries, including the “Journey to Planet Earth” Series on PBS, narrated by Matt Damon and The Age of Consequences. Her articles have appeared numerous journals and publications, including The Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, and Defense News. She was profiled in Buzzfeed.

A graduate of Amherst College, she has degrees from Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government.